After walking back into the room, I didn’t quite know what to do with myself. There wasn’t really anything for me to do. I walked around the room a couple of times, straightening things and rearranging them. Pausing at the dresser, I bent down to pick up a shopping bag that had fallen off. Or had Logan pushed it off, I thought? I smiled to myself, I think he pushed it. Placing it back where it had been sitting, I opened the top draw and pulled out my silver thermos. Only half full, it sloshed around as I gave it a bit of a shake, mixing the blood inside. Unscrewing the lid, I tipped my head back slightly and let the warm liquid slide down my throat. There was nothing that could be compared to that moment, that taste. It warmed my insides and filled me with strength. I could feel myself grow stronger as I drank.
Having drained the thermos, I ran my tongue over my lips, cleaning them of blood and placed the thermos back where I had found it. Patting my jeans pocket for the room key, I decided to take a walk. It was no use sitting inside anymore and I had a few more things to think about.
Locking the door behind me, I walked up the hall, towards the front of the Lodge. As I entered the front foyer, I noticed that Miriam was packing up her desk.
“Going home already?” I asked, stopping next to her. I glanced briefly up at the clock on the wall behind her desk. It wasn’t even ten o’clock yet.
She shook her head. “Emergency, I’m afraid. So I have to go home early. My son was in an accident, nothing major, but his car is totalled,” she told me, locking the draws to her desk. “I swear, I’m gonna kill the kid, it’s the third car he’s wrecked this year.”
I suppressed my laughter, not wishing to upset her further. She was frazzled and looked out for blood, so to speak. I felt sorry for her son. My mind flashed to my own mother, and for a moment I wished I could see her now. There was so much going on in my life, and other than Logan, I longed to share it with someone. However, my feelings towards having my family know about my other life hadn’t changed. In fact, they had strengthened. I knew the dangers more now, and the importance of keeping them in the dark. And I’d protect them from that, whatever the cost.

“There’s an emergency number posted on the front door, in case anybody needs anything,” Miriam continued, dragging me out of my thoughts. “And of course the manager is on call at all times.” She scooped up a pile of papers and clutching them to her chest staggered towards the door. One of her hands held her handbag, the other her car keys. She struggled to carry everything, and a few pieces of paper fell from her pile.
“Wait,” I told her, reaching down and scooping them up. “You don’t want to loose these,” I said, placing them back on her pile.
“Thank-you, dear,” she smiled. “I’ll see you tomorrow, bye,” she said, waving her car key carrying hand at me as she walked out the door.
I stood, just the fraction of a second, before following in the direction Miriam had gone. I walked down the stairs, hearing the familiar creak under my weight and turned right once I reached the bottom, heading to the side of the Lodge opposite to the barn and shed where the majority of the vehicles where housed. I vaguely noticed Logan’s Lancer parked next to the fountain and wondered what was going on that Greg had wanted to talk to him about. I dismissed the thought, not wanting to stress myself more than necessary. Logan would tell me once he knew himself.
I followed the gravel path that led to an area surrounded by bushes and trees. It was a tiny open space and I saw there was a small bench sitting in the corner, near the side of the Lodge. Huh, I thought to myself. I’ve never noticed this little area before. When I’d initially explored the Lodge I had mainly looked inside the barn and right out front of the Lodge itself. I hadn’t taken the time to do an extensive search and at that current time, I hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to do so. I’d been too broken.
Reaching the bench, I sat down, drawing my knees up and wrapping my arms around them. I rested my head on my knee. And what about now, I thought? Was I as broken as I had been then? Strangely I didn’t think so. At the time, it had been almost impossible to imagine that I could move past this, but I was beginning to accept that I could. I just needed to be strong. Logan was right. I couldn’t let Micah take more from me than he already had. I had to be strong now....for me. In the past it had always been for someone else. Whether it had been for my family, or Claudia, or Callie or even the covenant. I’d never just fought for me, for what I felt, or what I wanted. But now I had to.
I could no longer blame God, or his plans, or anything along those lines. I couldn’t doubt my faith now, just because a pathetic excuse for a vampire named Micah had killed the covenant. He’d killed them and it was he who was going to pay for it. He’d been a constant nightmare in my life for over a year now and I was sick of it. Sick of living with a constant nagging thought at the back of my mind, wondering about the next time he was going to pop up. I couldn’t live like that, not anymore. I wasn’t going to let him destroy my life, not now. Not when I finally found someone I actually wanted to share it with, who I cared about, who I loved.

Decided and sure, I stood up, ready to head back to the room. On the way back I felt very calm and oddly at peace. I was very sure of how I wanted to handle things now. I knew how I had to act and how I had to live my life.
As I neared the room I shared with Logan, I saw him come out of it. He glanced down the hall and saw me coming, slamming the door behind him and moving towards me.
“There you are,” he said, his voice strange. “I’ve been looking for you.” The look on his face confused me, and I slowed down before his actions sent my mind spinning. He reached me, and not pausing in the slightest, gripped my wrist with one of his hands and started dragging me down the hallway, back the way I’d come.
“Hey!” I said, giving my wrist a shake as he continued to move down the hallway. “What’s going on?”
He ignored me at first but when I started to pull in his hold he answered. “You have to get out of here. You need to leave.”
“What!” I came to such an abrupt holt, that his fingers slid from my wrist and he had to turn to look at me. “Logan, I’m not leaving. Why would I leave? I’m not going-”
“They lied, Roxi!” he cried. “The other hunters. They’ve been keeping things from me. Important things.
I stared at him. Not quite believing, yet knowing he wouldn’t lie to me. “Why,” I asked, despite having a fairly good reason why. It was because of me.
He shrugged, glancing longingly down the hall. He wanted to keep moving, but I wouldn’t let him, not until he gave me some answers. “Because they knew I wouldn’t agree with the things they were doing. They kept things from me because they knew I’d go against them.” He laughed a dry, disgusted laugh. “And they were right. What they’ve done. What they may still do.....” he broke off and shook his head.
“Maybe you heard wrong, maybe they have their reasons,” I stuttered, not wanting to believe that the hunters would be keeping things from Logan. If they were, then what else was going on that we didn’t know about?
“Roxi,” Logan called, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Some of the hunters were at the Manor after Micah set it on fire.”
“I know,” I said. “I was there. We got there as the others did. They-”

“No!” Logan cut me off, reaching out and gripping my shoulders. “No. Before that. Before everyone else got there,” he said. It hurt to hear him speak, because in the pit of my stomach I knew what he was saying. I didn’t want him to say it, but he did. “Some hunters arrived just as the Manor was going up in flames. It was still early, and the covenant was still trapped inside. They could have tried to get people out, tried to put out the blaze, but they didn’t,” he told me, his voice tense. “They didn’t!”
“Why?” I blubbered, my eyes getting wet and a few tears escaping. “Why would they do that? Why wouldn’t they help them?” I shook my head, feeling myself tremble.
Logan regarded me with a serious, yet gentle expression. “Because they were ordered to. They were told not to help, and that’s what they did.” He started to pull me back down the hallway and I let him. Soon, we past Miriam’s empty desk, settling in the Lodge’s foyer. I was momentarily glad that she’d had to go home early. I wouldn’t have wanted a witness to this.
I was learning that the people I was slowly beginning to trust had been lying the whole time. I couldn’t believe that I’d actually started to think that some of the hunters weren’t so bad, that they were decent people, that they had hearts. How could no one have told me? How could I have not know, not heard something?
Sam, I thought. That’s what he’d meant. What he’d been trying to say. He regretted not helping the covenant. He’d followed his orders and not helped them, just like a lot of hunters had, apparently. Oh, Greg...... Wait, no, I thought. He’d been in the car with us, he hadn’t known.
My hands shook, as I wiped a tear away. I’d been doing so well, beginning to accept things, but this hurt. It really did. “I don’t understand,” I pushed. I wanted to come up with a reason, any reason, for why things had happened the way they had. I didn’t want to face the truth that the hunters could be that callous, that heartless. “They needed the covenant. Why let them die? What would that achieve, except more problems?”
I looked up into Logan’s icy blue eyes, hoping he’d have answers. However, the look he held in his eyes gave me a chill and I knew he did. Only it wasn’t something I was going to like. “Tell me,” I begged, closing my eyes “Please.” I had to know, whatever it was....I had to know the truth.

“They couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get rid of a few extra vampires,” he said softly, knowing how much it would hurt me to hear. I opened my eyes and met his. He looked at me and shook his head. He glanced at the front door and his lips hardened. “You can’t stay here,” he said, reverting back to his earlier attitude. “It’s not safe for you.”
I shook my head, sharply. “Logan, no. It doesn’t matter what happened. I can’t leave.”
“No, Roxi you don’t understand. Some of the things I heard them talking about.... found out they were hiding from me,” Logan broke off and shook his head. He was angry. No, wrong word, he was furious, absolutely furious! “I don’t think Frank, and my other superiors, ever intended to let the covenant live once the Micah mission was over.”
This brought me up short, and any arguments I had disappeared quickly as his words registered.
“That’s why they had no hesitation what-so-ever when it came to letting the covenant die,” he continued. “It didn’t matter to them, because they had the intention of killing the covenant all along. This was just an earlier execution of a plan they already had, only they didn’t have to get their hands as dirty because Micah had added his own extra, unintentional, bit of help.” He shook his head. “There’s nothing that makes me think that they wouldn’t try to kill you too if they felt you were of no more use to them, or too much of a hassle.”
He stepped forward and cupped my face, holding it in his hands as he lent down towards me. “I will not let them hurt you!” His voice shook with the force in it, and I knew he was serious. Deadly, dangerously serious. “There’s too many hunters who follow Frank’s orders with out so much as a second thought, there’s no way I’d be able to take them all on.” His eyes narrowed as he looked at me. “Well, at least there’s no way I’d win.”
I stifled a gasp. Oh my god! He’d go up against them, I thought. He’d take on his friends and colleagues if they tried something. He’d fight them! Each individual hunter was as deadly as Logan was. Not quite as well trained and as good as Logan, but still very good. If he went head to head with a group of them, there was no certainly that he would win. And I didn’t know, couldn’t be positive, that they wouldn’t seriously hurt him. Not now..... If they thought he was putting me ahead of them, then....

I gulped, unable to finish that thought. “Okay,” I mumbled. “Okay, I’ll leave.” I wouldn’t let him get hurt. Not because of me, if there was anyway around that, I’d take it.
He held my gaze for a moment longer, staring into my eyes, into my soul, and I knew he knew why I was leaving. For him, only for him. His hands dropped from my face and one of them caught mine, pulling me closer to the Lodge door.
We paused near it, and he pulled his hand from mine. “Here,” he said, reaching into his jeans pocket and pulling out his car keys. “Take the Lancer,’ he told me, placing the keys in my hand. “The other hunters can’t know I’ve helped you leave. Not yet. Not until I figure exactly what’s going on and who I can trust. If they ask, I’ll tell them I left the keys in the room and that you took them without my knowing.”
I looked down at the keys in my hand, curling my fingers around them, as Logan continued speaking. “They don’t need to know why you left. They’ll have questions and doubts as to my involvement, but I’m a highly respected hunter and they’ll have no proof I helped you. It won’t be a problem for me, and if it is, I can handle it.”
My eyes snapped up. I knew how he’d handle it, and I didn’t want to think about that.
He held my gaze. “Listen, there’s some cash and a few credit cards in the glove department in the car. Leave the cards, they can trace them if you use them, but take all the cash. Use whatever you need,” he paused and his eyes tightened, studying me. “Do you have your cell phone with you?”
I nodded and he held out his hand.
“Give it to me,” he said. “They can trace that too.”
I reached into my pocket and pulled it out, placing it in his outstretched hand. He slid it into his back pocket.
“Now Roxi, this is very important,” he told me sternly. “Do not contact anyone you know,” he said slowly, holding my gaze to press the severity of what he was saying. “Don’t go home, don’t go anywhere familiar. Drive somewhere far away from here, as far as you can get. There’s more than enough money for you to get a motel room, or something. Most don’t ask for ID. Stay away from the places you know, the people you know. If the hunters decide to try and track you down those are the first places they’ll check.” He took a breath. “Do you understand?”
I did. “Yes,” I told him, my voice quivering as I realised how serious this was. The hunters had so many contacts, how was I supposed to disappear?

I looked up into Logan’s eyes. I didn’t want to leave him; I didn’t want to be that far away from him. I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay with him. But I couldn’t, he was the only person I had left who I trusted. Trusted, with everything, but I wouldn’t be the reason something horrible happened to him. I wouldn’t let myself. I’d walk away first, I’d leave first. My heart thumped and stung in my chest as I spoke. “I understand,” I whispered, feeling my tears brim over.
“Good,” he sighed, pulling me to him. He pulled me right against him and brought his lips down, meeting mine. He snaked his hand in my hair and held my face against his. Our lips moved together and I gripped his forearms. “You have to go,” he murmured against my lips before kissing me again. Each time we pulled back slightly, he’d murmur for me to go, before kissing me again, as though he couldn’t actually force himself to let me go.
We kissed a second longer and as we did, a thought hit me. I didn’t know when I’d see him again. Or even if I would. No! No, I thought, tightening my grip on his arms, I would, somehow I would.
Then, one last kiss as he brought his other hand up and held my face, once again, in both hands, kissing me with a force and desperation he never had before. “Go!” he shrieked, pulling himself back and giving me a push through the door. “You have to run. Go now.”
I did. I slid through the open door, away from him, and down the porch stairs. Just after I reached the bottom another thought occurred to me and I skidded to a stop, pivoting to look at him. “Wait!” I said, looking at him, standing in the doorway, hands in fists at his side. “How will I contact you?” I asked.
He swallowed. “You don’t,” he told me. “I’ll contact you.”
“But how? You won’t even know where I am,” I asked, unsure. “How will you-”
“I’ll find you,” he cut me off, speaking coldly, yet determined. “I will find you Roxi.”
I held his steady gaze, hearing my heart thundering, as his words settled. It was a statement. It was a promise. I looked at him a moment more, knowing I had to move but not wanting to. Eventually I tore my gaze away from his and turned before, tear streaked and distraught, I did the last thing I wanted to do......
I ran.




Writers Note:
Hey guys. When I first started writing this story I wasn’t completely sure I wanted the entire thing in Roxi’s POV. Not being sure, I wrote a few bits and pieces from other characters POV’s like Claudia’s, and Logan’s, before deciding on just having Roxi’s POV. There was one bit from Logan that I really liked, because it showed how he felt and I’ve thought about including it in the story, as a one-off insight into him. It’s only short, about a page and a half on Word. It takes place just after this chapter and I wanted to know; do you guys want me to post it? Let me know!